Welcome back walker fanatics to the return episode of AMC’s hit drama series, The Walking Dead. This is a rather interesting, but at the same time great episode with the secondary characters without Rick to be seen. Episode 11 begins with Saviors going on their usual search and destroy mission against Rick’s army at an abandoned highway. Beneath them are Daryl, Rosita, Daryl, Dwight and more trying to get the civilians to a proper safe zone being the Hilltop. As a welcome present to the crew, Tara gives Dwight a walker that she was fighting first but ultimately gives up. Dwight is seen holding his arm tight, which is concerning because I don’t want my favorite anti-hero to get bit. Daryl commands everyone to keep moving after all said was done. Gabriel and Dr. Carson are dangerously lost, and what’s scary is that Gabriel can’t read all that well, even if it’s a map. WHY ARE ALL OF THE GOOD CHARACTERS DYING AFTER HAVING THEIR STAND-ALONE MOMENT?!?!

We see Carson and Gabriel pull over to the side as Carson tests Gabriel’s vision. He’s ultimately failing, but his sense of hearing is better because Gabriel is hearing a bell ringing. The ringing noise leads to what Gabriel calls “salvation” for the time being.
Rosita suggests the group take a break from walking and rest because none of them got any sleep. Daryl compiles, but only for 10 minutes. Tara is anxiously waiting to kill Dwight because he used to be with the Saviors and she doesn’t trust him. Daryl and Rosita calm her down letting her know they need him for now, and he wants to help, they can’t lose that opportunity.

At the Hilltop, Kingdom and Hilltop civilians are working together to rebuild the place after the catastrophic events that recently took place. A Savior asks Morgan to move the kid (being Henry) to a safer place because sooner or later the Saviors will roll up and kill them all. Henry asks for the Savior who killed his brother, but Morgan and Carol told him to go get something to eat with Jerry.

Negan is disappointed in Eugene because of the fact his only doctor and the priest were able to jump ship, and no one knew about it. Negan asks Eugene how’d that happened, of course, Eugene wouldn’t know ;). Negan claims once they are found and brought back, he will make an example out of them. Eugene asks about what happened at Alexandria. Negan curiously asks if he cared about that place still because Rick and his people were the ones who tried to blow him off the face of the earth. Eugene disregards that question, and Negan rewards him of being in charge of his very own outpost to make bullets. Negan is going to provide Eugene with proper resources to make sure he gets his work done including chef, security, message people, and even wine for good ole Eugene!

At the new place Gabriel likes to call “home”, he finds a notepad where a person who used to live there says never give up hope. The house has a radio system to communicate with others and Gabriel is truly not giving up hope in this place. Carson found the guy who used to live here–he’s now a walker with a bag over his head!

Daryl discusses with Rosita and Tara about a shortcut to the Hilltop. Dwight jumps in with a good idea, but Tara is still having a hard time believing in Dwight. The other civilians back up Tara, but Dwight makes a compelling speech on how he killing Saviors, Daryl saw it, Rosita saw it, and Tara saw it. He made his choice and he’s sticking with that choice, even if he dies after all said is done, he will never go back to the Saviors.

Carson is getting really annoyed with Gabriel because he refuses to lie down. Gabriel is trying to read a prescription bottle. Carson takes it, and fortunately for Gabe, it’s antibiotics! That man just saved Gabriel’s life!

Daryl’s group stumbles upon a dangerous lake, where Saviors refused to cross before according to Dwight. Daryl and Rosita are going to do their best in trying to clear out the undead to make it safe for everyone else.

Gregory wishes to speak with Maggie, and he pleads with her to let him go because he’s been good, and she denies his parole. A Savior backs Gregory up saying they all have been good recently and all they want is to be let out of the cage they’ve been put in. Maggie denies them of their request and instead is taking away half of their rations because her people come first!

Back to the death lake, Daryl, Rosita, and what it seems to be Sedic, are scoping it out to kill any undead drowners. Sedic and Daryl walk through a bush and all around them are floating walkers, they begin taking them out one by one. Tara gives Dwight a knife to help out killing the walkers because he insisted he did, but has been denied. Dwight then takes the knife and walks into the lake.

Carson checks out Gabriel, and his fever is lowering, but his vision is still not normal. If it’s not repaired soon, then it may be permanent! Gabriel isn’t worried about this at all because he believes God sent him here for a reason and this may be a blessing. A blessing it is indeed because Gabriel accidentally knocks over a piggy bank and inside are car keys and another map!
Dwight and Tara go walker hunting, Dwight apologizes to Tara for killing Denise. He knows she isn’t going to forgive him right away, but it was worth a shot. After Dwight kills the last walker he sees, Tara points a gun at his head and tells him to drop the knife. Dwight has his body halfway hiding behind a tree and at the same time poking the rest so he can speak to Tara. He tells her that killing him right now is not going to do anything good for her. Tara claims it’s going to make her feel a lot better, she shoots and misses and Dwight is on the run! The race for like a minute until Dwight thought he was in the clear, but Tara sneaks up from behind and has the gun on his head! As Tara was about to pull the trigger, more Saviors appear out of nowhere, and they both hide from the enemy!

Carson is trying to find the car, but Gabriel is having a hard time seeing where he is going. Gabriel looks at a sign, he’s able to read half of it and screams for Dr. Carson to stop. He was too late as Carson steps on a bear trap, which leads to a walker to appear in the shadows! Gabriel is conflicted has no clue on what to do, he’s temporarily blind. More walkers appear within the woods, some fall for the trap, but others fall onto Carson! He kills a couple, but in mid scuffle with a walker, he loses his gun. Gabriel tries to find the missing gun, but can’t see all that well. God blessed Gabriel with the gift of sight as he was able to find the gun and kill the walker to save his friend!

Tara is unbelievably annoyed with Dwight because she believes Dwight set them up to die. Tara was going to go out and kill them all, but Dwight jumps in and talks to them. Tara is ultimately shocked by his bravery. Dwight leads them somewhere, away from Tara, so she can escape. Behind her is Rosita making sure she was okay because she saw her chasing after him. Tara asked why didn’t she stop her, Rosita responds with nobody could’ve stopped herself. Daryl returned giving Tara a verbal lecture about what happened and now he’s scared for his life. He calmed down because he saw the look on Judith’s face and Tobin covering her ears.
As we thought it was going to be set sailing for Carson and Gabriel, it turned into a nightmare as Saviors found them! They took them to the back of their truck, tied up. Worst comes worst, Gabriel has Carson, not anymore! A Savior shoots him in the chest, instantly killing him in front of Gabriel! The other Savior calls the killer an idiot because that was their last doctor. Gabriel begins breaking down crying, he lost a good friend, and the one treating him!

The Hilltop gates open to let in Daryl and company; he had to be the bearer of bad news to let everyone know that Carl is dead! Enid begins breaking down while everyone is trying to wrap their head around that he died for a stranger. Morgan also lets Henry know that he killed the person who killed his brother.

Sedic thanks Maggie for the hospitality and for letting him in. He also asks for the infirmary to help contribute because he has past experience.

Eugene is seen at his new outpost working on bullets where one of Negan’s wives comes in and congratulates him on the new position. Eugene ignores the compliment and tells her the safety rules. She wanted to help, so Eugene tells her his dinner order and for his partners as well. His final order is for someone to wipe his behind, but the room became silent as Negan walks in with Gabriel. He announces that he escaped with Carson’s help and he will be working with Eugene for now sorting out the bullets even though his eyes don’t work well. Eugene lets Negan know that it may be a few more days until a good amount of work is done. Negan is not impressed with the words that came out of Eugene’s mouth. Eugene covers him behind letting Negan know to use the cattle boat and launch heads, legs, guts, etc. Once Negan left, Eugene approached Gabriel with bullets and Gabriel thought he found what he was meant to do with his life. Eugene responds with, “So have I”.

Maggie confronts the Saviors and Gregory to notify them that they will be taken out in pairs to do work, be fed, and treated if necessary. Gregory is very blessed with this promotion. Maggie quickly shuts his mouth and threatens him that he will lose his privileges.

Negan gathers up the Saviors and Dwight to notify them war is coming, and Lucille is ready for the blood and guts of their foes. Negan needs more people to join the head bashing club whether it’s Hilltop or Kingdom!

This was indeed a very interesting episode with even more character development, but not from the usual cast, but from the secondary characters which in my opinion are stronger than the usual characters! It’s also hard to see Carson go like that because the Saviors are in deep trouble without any medical support; Rick and company are doing such fine now with Sedic. Back to the rating scale—leaning towards Daryl Dixon—the best episode thus far—Glenn Rhee, one of the best of the batch, Rick Grimes, a rather average episode, Gregory, the Hilltop leader, which was lacking quality, and Spencer and Aidan Monroe, the absolute worst of the batch. Season eight, episode eleven earns a Glenn Rhee rating, one of the best of the batch!